I was flying a red-eye from SFO to Madison, Wisconsin that night. Before traffic got bad, I drove up to my boat, which was parked near my base at SFO. I thought I’d go early and take a nap on the boat before flying through the wee hours. I opened the hatch to find a foot of water above the floor! What an awful feeling! Is the keel sitting on the ground? Where is the water coming from? Why isn’t the bilge pump running? How am I going to take a nap?
I went to the hand pump and started pumping. It was futile. After hundreds of pumps I was exhausted and the water had only gone down an inch. Right then, the guy I bought the boat from arrived at his fancy new Beneteau in the slip across from mine. “My boat is full of water!” I exclaimed. He quickly produced a 5 gallon bucket. I stood on the steps filling it and handing it to him like some sick CrossFit workout.
The water being pumped out by the big electric pump.
We got the water quite a bit lower, but knowing I had to go to work, he said he’d take care of it. He called the harbormaster who brought a big pump. They found a mechanic who discovered that the packing gland nut had backed out. They told me that they pumped out 1000 gallons. I was so thankful to them for saving my boat. The next installation was a new bilge pump, of course!
Fortunately, not much was ruined. The engine stayed above the water and had no damage. One of the outlets had to be replaced, and the wood became discolored along the water line. There was already a stain on the wood at the same level when I bought the boat, so this was not the first time she’d taken on water.
Water leaking in through the packing gland.
